


Nico di Angelo is a Hero

by ADragonsFriend



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Study, Hero's Journey, With all seventeen steps, Wrote this during tech week, idk - Freeform, or something like that, tagging am I rite?, the theater tech/crew peoples know what I mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 01:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20788490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADragonsFriend/pseuds/ADragonsFriend
Summary: A look at Nico's journey as a hero through the Percy Jacson and The Heroes of Olympus series.The smol bean gets a lot of love in this fandom... It's not enough. He must have more love.





	Nico di Angelo is a Hero

Nico di Angelo is a main character in both Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus and Heroes of Olympus. He first appears in The Titan’s Curse and plays a major role in almost every book following it. While he is often used to develop Percy’s character and teach him lessons, Nico goes through his own, often much darker journey, and becomes a hero in his own right. In the beginning of The Titan’s Curse, Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Thalia, recuse Nico, then a terrified ten-year old, and his sister Bianca, from a manticore, Dr. Thorne. Nico’s first call of destiny is finding out that he is a demigod, he was destined by his birth to be a great hero. Being a child obsessed with Mythomagic, a game based on Greek Mythology, Nico easily accepts the existence of the myths as a fact. His refusal to the call comes later. When Nico finds out that Percy, whom he had formed a hero-worship based crush on, failed to protect Bianca, he becomes disillusioned to the role of a hero. He subsequently runs away from Camp Half-Blood, a physical representation of his rejected destiny. As a child of Hades, Nico often says that he is meant to be alone, and his next interaction only encouraged this mindset. No benevolent god or demigod finds Nico, instead his supernatural aid comes in the form of the spirit Minos, the Ghost King. Minos teaches him to use and control his powers as a son of Hades, but Nico later finds out that Minos was manipulating him for his own ends. After Nico is rescued from Minos’ trap by Annabeth and Percy, he banishes Minos to the Underworld and proclaims himself the Ghost King. At the end of The Battle of the Labyrinth, Nico is given the opportunity to resurrect Bianca. This is the moment when Nico finally begins to embrace his identity as a hero, he makes the decision to stop trying to bring back his sister, focusing more on his duties as a demigod. In other words, he crosses a threshold. From then on Nico’s first priorities become (mostly) saving the world from Kronos and later Gaea. In The Last Olympian Nico devises a plan that will allow Percy to defeat Kronos. It requires both of them to go to the Underworld, and Percy to bathe in the River Styx to gain the curse of Achilles. Nico has still ulterior motives for helping Percy, he attempts to use Percy to make a deal with his father Hades for information, and still hopes that Percy will fall in love with him. After his deal fails, he rescues Percy and their ploy with the curse succeeds, they escape the Underworld. As they leave Hades says to Nico, “Since Bianca died I have no competent children.” Nico gives up on getting approval from his father or Percy’s affections in this moment and throws himself into saving the world. This is when his belief that he is meant to be alone is fully solidified. Rejection by his father is one of Nico’s worst fears but after escaping the Underworld he comes out with a new strength that is found solely in himself. He survived the belly of the whale.

Nico faces many trials in The Last Olympian and The Heroes of Olympus and atonement with his father is an ongoing theme. At the end of the first series Nico convinces Hades to help the Olympians by bringing his army of the dead to defeat Kronos’ army. Nico stated that it would gain both Hades and the Underworld respect in the eyes of the other gods, this statement aligns with Hades desires and he begins to accept Nico after the venture succeeds. During the intermission between the series Hades gives Nico a French zombie chauffeur, Jules-Albert. Nico is also told by Hades to gain the trust of the Roman demigods of Camp Jupiter, the mission represents both a trial and the trust that Hades now puts in Nico. While Nico has no traditional meeting with the goddess moment, on one visit to the Underworld he encounters Hazel Levesque, a daughter of Pluto and his half-sister, in the Fields of Apostle. Nico proceeds to bring her back to the land of the living. The reason he gives Hazel and others for doing so is giving Hazel another chance to be a hero. He now believes that all demigods deserve a chance to be heroes. Nico’s other motivation which appears quite obvious in The Son of Neptune, was to replace the relationship and love that was lost to him when Bianca died. While there is certainly no romance or lust involved, Nico does face a great temptation to bring Hazel back to life. Ultimately, he gives in to this temptation and puts himself at great personal risk to save her. Nico’s trials only multiply from then on, because of his hubris concerning his power over the underworld he must journey through Tartarus alone and is henceforth captured by Gaea’s forces. After nearly losing his mind in Tartarus, he is imprisoned by Otis and Ephialtes in a glass jar. Nico survives by putting himself in a death trance, further isolation and abuse in an already unstable state of mind. After Percy and Annabeth are cast into Tartarus, at the end of The Mark of Athena, Nico has to lead the remaining members of the Argo II to the other side of the Doors of Death. While this journey does present Nico with challenges, it is also the beginning of a slow and trying apotheosis stage. In The House of Hades Nico is forced by Cupid/Eros to admit both his feelings for Percy, and his sexuality to Jason Grace, who, to Nico’s surprise is fully accepting of him. From then on Jason makes many attempts to treat Nico as a friend. Though Nico initially refuses Jason’s friendship, by the end of the series they become good friends. Through out the last two books Nico gradually opens up to more and more people. Perhaps most notable is his friendship with the Roman praetor Reyna. On their journey to return the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half Blood in The Blood of Olympus, Reyna inadvertently discovers the immense emotional pain Nico holds and his homosexuality. Like Jason she immediately accepts him, but unlike Jason, has more success in proving to Nico that her care for him is genuine. During the “final battle” at Camp Half Blood Nico also meets Will Solace properly and is able to become friends with him relatively quickly. After the battle, Reyna is the one to grant the ultimate boon and the completion to his apotheosis: acceptance by both the Greeks and Romans by telling the demigods all he has done to ensure their success and survival.

Throughout both series there is the idea that “the demigod life” does not end with the quest. In accordance with this idea, Nico has no true return to society or his life before The Titan’s Curse, instead he decides to stay at Camp Half Blood in the company of other demigods. Having mastered his power, reconciled with his father, and learned how to live among the living, Nico is now the master of two worlds: the living and the dead. Though he still feels somewhat awkward, Nico never again pushes people away as he did before his apotheosis, he makes no refusal of the return. With the help of Will Nico eventually becomes comfortable enough to come out as gay, first to Percy and Annabeth on order to clear the air between them, and eventually to the whole camp. In between The Blood of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo Nico and Will start dating, after Will has to “chase after” Nico on a magic flight because of his initial awkwardness. Nico quickly becomes an essential part of the camp, often helping Will in the infirmary, which grants him liberation from much of his dark past and freedom to live.

**Author's Note:**

> If I'm honest, this was an English essay that was meant to be like a page... it turned into four pages and 1,300 words of me appreciating Nico. I don't regret it. I love Nico. 
> 
> To anyone struggling with accepting their sexual orientation, gender identity or living in an unsafe situation, I love you. You're not broken, you're not immoral. You're perfect. You don't need to change and you won't always have to hide. There are communities out there waiting for you, online and in the physical world. We're here, we're queer (and wonderful allies), and we're certainly not going away.
> 
> Love y'all, stay safe,  
A Dragon's Friend
> 
> P.S. For Aspecs(And anyone else who wants to be there): the Asexual Visibility and Education Network(AVEN) forums have been super helpful for me.
> 
> Some other links I haven't looked at but seem good:  
\- https://lgbtchat.net/forums/transgender.11/  
\- http://forum.transgenderhub.com/community/  
\- https://support.therapytribe.com/lgbt-support-group/


End file.
